The Double Dorje: Looking at Modern Vajrayana Buddhism.
What the tsok? What to expect.
Wed, 16 Oct 2024
Tsok pujas are a big feature of Tibetan-style Buddhism as it is actually practiced, but newcomers often don't have a blind clue what's going on - explanations are hard to find. So here is a rundown with a bit of background and a few tips. Now there's a fancy torma! Words or phrases you might want to look up: Tsok, tsogs, tshog etc. Ganacakra, ganapuja, tsok puja ཚོགས (transliterated tshogs) Sangha Guru Rinpoche Torma Benchen Jigme Lingpa #Buddhism #Vajrayana #Tibet #DoubleDorje #torma #tsok #tsog #tshogs #JigmeLingpa
Hello, hello and hello to all of you. Welcome or welcome back to the Double Doge podcast. I'm Alex Welding and in this episode I hope to give you, beginners in particular, some idea of what sock is about and what to expect when you go to one. But before we get to that, the usual bit.
Please pause briefly, if you will, to like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, tell your friends, and all that stuff, whatever way is suitable for the channel that you're listening on. And the other part of the standard message is, at the time of first publishing, the podcast is hosted on Podbean.
But since it's very likely that you're listening somewhere else, you may not be able to see the brief comments, or for that matter, the transcript. But if they don't appear in your channel... Or if you do want to see a bit more about the episode, you'll find all this on Podbean. Okay, tsok. The word is spelt in a variety of ways which you can see in the notes.
The full transliteration would be T-S-H-O-G-S. But you may already know that unless you've studied the rather complicated rules connecting Tibetan pronunciation to spelling, then it's probably better to stay with something simple like T-S-O-K.
I'm imagining that you are somebody who's reading the notice board at the Buddhist center you are visiting for one of the first times, or even the first time, and you see a tzok mentioned on the timetable. You might also see the words Ganachakra or Ganapuja, or the hybrid English version based on a mix of Tibetan and Indian, giving us the term Tsokpuja.
That's perhaps a bit of a linguistic mishmash, but it's no worse, I suppose, than a word like television. Sticking to Greek roots would have given us telescope, but that word was already taken, and I don't think there's anybody left who objects to the word television, so I'm sure we'll manage with sockbuja. The point is, in any case, that these are all just different terms for the same thing.
If you are that beginner, you will now naturally be wondering just what that thing is. I do recall in the early 90s being at a Buddhist summer school. In fact, it was a very relaxed affair and there was to be a tsok puja on the last day. My son was with me and asked what that was supposed to be.
I can't remember my answer very well, but I do know that he was completely confused and that sitting through the proceedings didn't help at all. So let's try and get ourselves a little bit oriented. Anyway, I forgive myself for that poor performance. Even though I'd been in the Dharma for 20 years, very little explanation of these things was given in the circles in which I moved.
Many of the talks that were described as teachings were basically inspirational in nature. They were entertaining and encouraging, but it can't be said that they were terribly informative.
In the end, perhaps that was a good thing because I realised that if I was ever going to have an idea of what I was trying to do, I was going to have to find it out for myself, leading up to what some might say is the rather excessive library of Buddhist books I've collected over the years.
To begin, so that you have at least a vague hook on which to hang your understanding, we should note that the word Tsok literally means multitudes.
In an ideal Tsok Puja, lots of Dharma brothers and sisters come together with their teacher and make mountains of offerings to the Buddhas, the deities, the lamas of the lineage, along with confession prayers and in combination with eating and drinking, singing and having a jolly time. The practice, however, can vary an awful lot.
The scope of a tsok puja, such as you'll find in real life, varies enormously. The liturgy, in some cases, can be boiled down to just a few lines, but it can also be expanded to many, many pages of prayers and offerings for this and that, taking an hour or, to be quite honest, even some hours to get through it.
It is a joyful celebration, at least it should be joyful, in which we, the yogis and yoginis, that is the male and female practitioners respectively, come together to celebrate and renew their vows in the presence of their Lama.
Normally the Lama is present as the head of this assembly, but let me remind you of the broad meaning that Lama can have in these contexts which I talked about in an earlier episode. In a sense here, the Lama represents the tantric equivalent of the Buddha, while the yogis and yoginis are the tantric equivalent of the Sangha, that is to say, the community of Buddhist practitioners.
The other prominent figures in the tantric landscape, the protectors, the dakinis and so on, are also visualised and held to be present. This practice originated in India more than a thousand years ago, amongst communities who were at least to some extent on the edge of society.
It does appear likely that not only the singing and dancing, but the consumption of plenty of intoxicants, along with the food, the singing, the dancing and lovemaking, were performed as written. A veritable orgy, in other words. Do not, however, expect or fear that that is what you will find at a Tibetan Buddhist centre these days.
Probably that kind of transgressive activity had a liberating effect breaking through the stiff and oppressive social structures of the time. But circumstances changed, both in the course of the transmission to Tibet and, believe it or not, in the course of the experience of many centuries.
Human nature being what it is, it's not impossible to find people with or without a proper background in traditional Tibetan Buddhism who would like to reinstate a literal reading of the old texts that describe Tzok Bujas. Whether or not that is in fact skillful, whether or not it is beneficial, and whether or not it represents the true Buddhist tradition,
These are questions that you are welcome to ruminate on for yourself. But aside from the fact that you can meet a mugger every time you go around a street corner, but usually you don't, there is no real reason to imagine you are likely to find this approach at your local Buddhist centre.
Coming back to normal practice, Tsok Pujas also provide a time not only for celebrating the blessings that have been received, but for confessing failures to maintain our vows and for renewing them. Very many Western followers of Tibetan Buddhism will only do Tsok Pujas on special occasions, such as at the conclusion of a series of teachings.
But the more serious practitioners, and no, I'm not going to try to define who they are, it's usual to perform a Sok Puja regularly, typically on the 10th and 25th days of the lunar month, for just the reason I mentioned a minute ago. Monks and nuns often gather to renew their vows on the full moon and new moon days, while the practice of the Sok Puja on the 10th and 25th days is parallel to this.
In the Nyingma tradition, the 10th day is particularly associated with Guru Rinpoche, and the Tsok of the 25th day, which is, as it were, the 10th day of the waning phase of the moon, focuses on the Dakinis, but that might be getting a bit technical and going beyond the scope of this episode. Having mentioned those particular occasions,
I should also say that it is not at all uncommon for practitioners to perform some kind of sock puja every day or even in some cases several times a day. Sock pujas are therefore used both on a regular basis as well as to mark special occasions. In my life, like most of us I'm sure, I've not always been at the right place at the right time.
On the other hand, sometimes I have been at the right place at the right time, and I was extremely lucky to be able to travel in the early 90s together with a group of students to Benchen Monastery in eastern Tibet, which was the home monastery of my teacher at that time, Chimi Rinpoche.
One of the things our Lama most particularly wanted to achieve was for us to perform a sok puja, actually a rather simple one, in the practice hall of that monastery. It felt as if by doing that, we had really been there, we had made a connection, the whole pilgrimage was somehow made real.
We mustn't forget that sock pujas can be much simpler, even just a few lines, and that it's also quite possible for a solo practitioner to perform a full sock puja. Let's take a look at what might happen at, for example, a monthly tzok organized by a center with an established community so that there are enough people to do all the various jobs. It's early evening.
We've turned up wearing our Sunday best, our hands washed, hair brushed and nails scrubbed. Mummy would have been proud of us. We file into the practice room and find a seat. We notice that on the shrine, in addition to the usual statues and perhaps paintings, and with the usual offerings in front of them, bowls of water, the flowers, incense, candles and so forth, There is an array of objects.
At first, you might think they were some kind of elaborate fairy cake. Mostly they are red, some are white, many are roughly the shape and size of an upside-down carrot, and many of them have a couple of decorative discs stuck to them. These are the taumas, or offering cakes. I shall make no further attempt to describe them. It's a whole art form.
An internet search for images based on the word Torma will quickly give you an impression. You should realize that the examples that you see when you do such a search will be likely to show particularly elaborate Tormas. Those at our imaginary center are likely to be rather simpler. Nearby, there is a table on which other offerings such as food are arranged.
Because people like to contribute to the chok but don't know what to do, we also see a pile of chocolates, potato crisps, sweets and snacks amounting to a worrying number of calories embedded in ultra-processed substrates. It is what it is. Any particular chok puja generally is associated with a particular deity, a Buddha, a dhagini or a lama.
And the proceedings will begin with the usual sadhana practice for that deity. Refuge, bodhicitta, invocation of the deity, praise, recitation of the mantra and so forth will all be performed. It depends, it depends, it depends, but this might well take something between half an hour or an hour. The tsok puja proper then begins and the taumas now start to come into play.
Well, actually, that's not quite right. If there is to be a tsok, then some taumas may have been offered at or near the beginning of the whole proceeding to prepare the space that is to be used in a ritual or spiritual sense. But now the tsok starts to get into gear with more praises and invocations to the deities concerned.
The offerings are blessed by being sprinkled with water and what is known as amrita, which usually takes the form of alcohol with special substances dissolved in it. At some point, slices are taken off the main tomah. One particularly nice piece is offered to the lama. Other pieces are offered, for example, particularly to represent confession. Confession prayers are likely to be recited.
Another slice is the liberation slice, which is offered to destroy the bad effects of our broken vows. And at some point, the body of the Torma is distributed to all the participants, along with some of the additional offerings, the sweeties and so on, to the general participants such as ourselves.
If you want to look good, and who indeed doesn't, there are a couple of bits of etiquette that are worth knowing if you want to look like an ordinary beginner rather than a rank beginner. Firstly, when the food is brought round, remember that we are enacting a sacred space in which everything is to be seen as pure and sacred. So pick up a bit of whatever food comes to hand on the plate.
Hovering over it, deciding that this bit is my favourite, but that's not my favourite, picking it over and turning it round, is not only bad form, but is also not really within the spirit of the tsok. Secondly, when the Amrita drink comes round, the server will have a cup or bowl, notionally a skull bowl, but probably not, and a spoon. Hold out your cup left hand,
with your cupped right hand supporting it from underneath. Accept the spoonful of liquid, which is likely to consist mostly of whiskey, though I have known creme de menthe to be used. Accept the liquid in the palm of your left hand and drink it all down straight away, no hesitation. This is not only in the spirit of the sock, but it also helps to make less mess. Third tip.
keep a little bit of your food aside. Toward the end of the eating and drinking, someone will come with a bowl to collect these remainders, which will be offered by the lama to all those who were not qualified to be present to take part in the tsok itself. If you've scoffed every bit, then you will be the one who looks like a rank outsider.
In some cases, these remainders are not actually collected from the general participants. and that part of the job is done by the llama on behalf of everyone else. If that turns out to be the case, then you can eat that last bit. And in this connection, there's one other beginner's mistake to avoid. There is no extra merit from giving back a lot of remainder. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Sock that never got given out, because perhaps there was just too much, may well be shared out later, perhaps taken away and shared with friends. But the remainders are not treated in the same way. They have been dedicated to all sorts of outsider spirits, so they are not for us, but neither should they just be thrown in the trash.
They should be left out for wild animals, and that doesn't include pets, and for birds. Buckets full of fruit, biscuits or even worse sweeties are not good for the environment and not good for the animals and birds. Too much remainder is actually a problem. Some years ago at Sechen Monastery in Bauda, I saw signs encouraging environmentally responsible puja and this is why.
This eating and drinking phase may well also be accompanied by some sacred songs. If you are lucky, they will be very beautiful. There may also be a verse or two specifically encapsulating the point of this tsok, which might be repeated several times or even many times.
In some cases, a count of the number of times this verse has been recited is kept as an accumulation, in the same way as mantras are accumulated. Inserting extra liturgy is something that can always happen, and one insert that can easily be used here is something which is rather famous among the Nyingma, namely Jigme Lingpa's Concised Sok. It's about a dozen lines long,
It touches all the essential points and it is rather beautiful. Being so short and remembering how Tibetans like to chant and chant and chant, it's very suitable for being recited three or seven times or for counting an accumulation of hundreds or thousands. Following the eating and drinking, the notional party, so to speak, it's very likely that there will be prayers to various protectors
Sometimes again, each of them having their own tomas that are often taken outside. And confession prayers. It's always possible that there will be more confession prayers. And then the dedication of merit and the concluding prayers. In some ways, this description has been vague, and that's quite deliberate.
The point is that although there are themes in common, very strongly, tzokpushas vary hugely in detail as well as in extent. To learn the details of an extensive talk is going to take anybody quite a long time. The fact is that many of the people you're likely to meet at a typical Western centre will not have put that time in. Perhaps they haven't even had a chance to.
You may find beautiful chant and music with the sacred songs performed to aching melodies, or you may find a monotonous drone from beginning to end. You may find taumas made closely in accordance with the traditional patterns, or you may find mere fantasies. The last case may not be so bad. Preparing elaborate taumas takes a lot of skill and a great deal of time.
If you are performing at Sok Puzha alone, for example, perhaps at home, it's not at all uncommon to use something like crackers for the same job. Everything, after all, is in the devotion, the focus and the understanding of the participants, and everything has to be appropriate for the circumstances.
If you're going to do such a puja at home, maybe taking two hours, is it proportionate to have to spend four or five hours beforehand making fancy cakes? Is there not perhaps a better way of spending your time? As a contrast to what I've just been saying, And again to illustrate the variety of ways in which the idea of tsok is embodied, here is another case.
The taumas, which are the core offering in tsok bhushas, are traditionally made of barley flour, butter and other ingredients, particularly sweet ones such as sugar or honey to make them delicious. But in addition to this, they should have at least a small quantity of many other exotic ingredients, some of which should have been appropriately blessed.
It's all very complicated, but there is no need to worry, because if you want to be this correct, you can buy this substance. It's called torze, and you can add a pinch to the mix. Now, the thing is, I did hear of a tradition It's not one that I'm part of, I should say.
In fact, I think it's somewhere in the Giluk scheme of things, in which the practitioner takes these ingredients, blessed as they are by including the special substances, and makes tiny pellets which are then dried. The practitioner then carries these pellets around with them in a little bag.
One pellet can then be added to the practitioner's food or drink six times a day, I believe, so that the practitioner can easily and discreetly, by also reciting an appropriate offering verse, do sockpushers six times a day, even when travelling in foreign lands. Ingenious, is it not? I'd like to finish by mentioning a popular sockpusher, much simpler than the one I described a few minutes ago.
This one is quite suitable for solo practice, and in fact I had a Dharma friend who took it as his regular daily practice. It's called, in translation, the Shower of Blessings, and it's a sok puja based on Guru Rinpoche, along with the seven-line prayer. The practice was composed by the famous Jhumipam Rinpoche. It is, in fact, the puja that I was privileged to take part in at Benjin Monastery.
And I heard of a small center run by a Western Lama who is, as I happen to know, a guy who really, really knows his stuff, which uses this puja as its main regular practice. It is a Nyingma practice focused on Guru Rinpoche, and so for people who don't have a positive resonance with that tradition, it would not be very helpful. But for those who do, I would really strongly recommend it.
It's the kind of thing that does need transmission, at the very least empowerment for Guru Rinpoche and a reading transmission for the text, although in a group setting it's quite likely that some of the people attending will not have those qualifications, but that's fine. That said, these things are relatively easy to obtain, so go for it if you can. And so we've reached the end.
Please remember to like this episode of the Double Doge, to subscribe, do whatever it is that suits your channel, and remember to maintain the sacred view. Bye.